Download Mon Feb 27, 2012 LONGFELLOW AND THE EVENING STAR Henry

Mon Feb 27, 2012
LONGFELLOW AND THE EVENING STAR
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807. He is
probably best known for his epic poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” He
also wrote about some things in the sky, like evening stars. An
evening star is another name for a planet that’s seen after
sunset. Tonight the brightest of evening stars, the planet Venus
shines in the west at sunset. Here’s a portion of his poem,
“Evening Star”, in which he compares the planet to the love he
had for his beautiful wife: “Lo! in the painted oriel of the
West … Like a fair lady at her casement, shines The evening
star, the star of love and rest! My best and gentlest lady! even
thus, As that fair planet in the sky above, Dost thou retire
unto thy rest at night, And from thy darkened window fades the
light.” Above Venus tonight you’ll also find another evening
star, the planet Jupiter, and above Jupiter, the waxing crescent
moon.
Tue Feb 28, 2012
HOLST’S “THE PLANETS”
On February 27th, in the year 1919, Gustav Holst's suite, "The
Planets," was first publicly performed: it featured theme music
for seven planets of the solar system (Pluto wasn’t included as
it wouldn’t be discovered for another 11 years.) And Holst was
certainly no astronomer – his knowledge of the subject was
limited. Holst did dabble in mythology, and in writing the music
for “The Planets,” he anthropomorphized them. That is, he gave
these worlds human characteristics. So the music for Mercury,
which takes only 88 days to go around the sun, is a fast-paced,
allegro tempo, as would befit the Olympian messenger of the
gods. On the other hand the music for Saturn, which revolves
about the sun only once every 29 years, is adagio, or slow and
stately. Mars is militant and loud, while Venus is beautiful,
and Jupiter, the king of planets, is majestic! Tonight the moon
is above Jupiter and Venus, in the west after sunset.
Wed Feb 29, 2012
LEAP YEAR DAY
Why is February so short? If we were to apply Vulcan logic when
devising a calendar, we’d have alternating months of thirty and
thirty-one days. But the Romans who created our original
calendar considered February to be an unlucky month, and they
made it as short as possible. Now the earth takes 365 and a
quarter days to make one full orbit of the sun. We ignore that
extra quarter day until we’ve saved up four of them, a whole
extra day, and then every four years we add that day to
February. So now why is today called leap year day? Look at last
year's calendar. January 1st, 2011, fell on a Saturday. In this
year's calendar; January first was on a Sunday. In a 365 day
year, there are exactly 52 seven-day weeks, with one day
remaining - so the calendar dates advance by that one extra day
each year. But leap years have 366 days, which is 52 weeks and 2
days. Look at January first for next year. It falls not on
Monday but on Tuesday. So the date goes from Sunday to Tuesday,
effectively "leaping over" Monday.
Thur Mar 1, 2012
NEW GIBBOUS MOON IN ORION
The waxing gibbous moon is well-placed in the southern sky after
sunset this evening. It appears above the head of the
constellation of Orion the Hunter. In Greek mythology, Orion was
a hunter, the son of Poseidon, and he was in love with Artemis,
the goddess of the moon and of the hunt. Now Artemis had a
brother, Apollo, the sun god, and he didn’t like Orion – not
good enough for his sister, he decided. One day while Orion was
swimming in the ocean, Apollo found his sister and pointed to
Orion, who appeared as just a little dark speck way out at sea.
He bet Artemis she couldn’t hit such a small target. And so she
shot the far-off target with an arrow, not realizing it was
Orion’s head. But Orion was a hero and he was given immortality
as a constellation of the night. Once a month the moon travels
through this part of the sky, and to the storytellers this was a
time when Artemis could visit with her old hunting companion.
Fri Mar 2, 2012
LEO'S RETURN
March, they say, comes in like a lion. This is meant to refer to
the changeable weather of the new month. But there’s also an
astronomical connection. Look south this evening and there you
will find the bright stars of winter. Chief among them is Orion
the Hunter. Along with him are the constellations Taurus the
Bull, the Big and Little Dogs, Auriga the Charioteer, and the
Gemini, all marked by bright stars. Now look toward the east.
Not much there. But toward the eastern horizon, you'll find a
fairly bright star – it’s called Regulus, and it marks the heart
of Leo the Lion. There are several other stars nearby which,
with Regulus, form the outline of a backwards question mark in
the sky – the lion’s head and mane. Leo is the first of our
springtime constellations. The Lion always comes into our
eastern evening sky when March begins.